of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 41

many of our fellow-citizens take the opportunity to manifest their high esteem
of him we love so well. Today, no doubt you have seen, just as I have seen,
Protestants and Jews, colored and white, each proudly displaying the "little
bit of green" that makes the whole world kin on "St. Patrick's Day in the
tonight, as we are gathered for our annual tribute to Patrick, the Apostle of
mornin. "

As possibly you may have heard me say before, I believe that it is a
salutary thing for the human race that days like this have been set aside, to
remind us of what has gone before, and to spur us to the contemplation of what
the lives, and deeds, of great men of long gone days, can mean to us in our
own private battles of life today. Thanks to the coming of St. Patrick's Day, I
have found it well—and intensely interesting—to refer again to the life and
writings of St. Patrick. And, if there are any among you who have not had
the time, or the inclination, to do what I have done, let me recommend it to
you highly. The accomplishments of St. Patrick in the Ireland of some fifteen
hundred years ago are full of salutary lessons for each and every one of us,
whatever our nationality or our creed.

The popular notion of St. Patrick, as you and I well know, is of a great
preacher who miraculously converted tens of thousands of Irishmen to Christi-
anity, and who, incidentally, drove the snakes out of Ireland. No doubt to
many, that second accomplishment outrates the first. Certainly, this sketchy
conception of Ireland's great Saint doesn't begin to tell the enthralling tale of
his actual accomplishments, and of the methods he used, methods, I submit to
you gentlemen, that it will pay every one of us, no matter what our occupation
in life, to study and emulate.

If we "look at the record, " as our esteemed Al Smith used to love to do,
we find that the future apostle of Ireland was born, according to at least one
well-authenticated account, in Scotland, but that at the age of sixteen, he was
captured by a marauding Irish band, and taken to Erin, where he was sold
as a slave to one Prince Milchu, who was a druid-priest as well. For six long
years he served this cruel master, tending his flocks on the hillsides of Dala-
radia, where, despite his servitude, he conceived an abiding love for Ireland,
and a determination to one day free it of the superstitions and fanaticisms
of Druidism.

From here on in, we begin to get a proper appreciation of Patrick the man,
without the aid of whom Patrick the Apostle most likely would have fared
little or no better than the unfortunate Bishop Palladius who attempted,
unsuccessfully, to Christianize Erin before him. From the first moment that
Patrick conceived the idea of winning Erin from Druidism, he immediately
began to lay his plans for so doing. He apparently believed in the old adage
that "God helps those who help themselves, " and he determined to leave nothing
undone that might help him to accomplish his ends. Not that he didn't place
his reliance in his God, for, by his own written account, a hundred times a
day was not too many to get down on his knees to pray for strength and
guidance. But, along with this spiritual preparation, he devoted his six years
of captivity to the mastry of the Irish language, and to a thorough study of
the beliefs, and the weaknesses of the Druid religion his master practiced, and
of the traditions and customs of the Irish people. At the same time, he
realized that, to bring the whole of Erin under the guidance of Christianity, he
would have to travel countless miles and suffer untold hardships and privations,